Our Forgotten Family
by strangled voice
Summary: It took Ramona Lorelai Danes too long to learn the truth. It took Lorelai Victoria Gilmore too long to accept it.


A few short author's notes:  
  
This is basically a "what if" story, though not the typical one. A few changes will be obvious, but some of the less obvious things are:  
  
Christopher ditched Lorelai when he found out she was pregnant.  
  
Dean moved to Stars Hollow a year before he did on the show.  
  
There are some details about Rory's birth that I had to change for the purposes of the fic, but the date is the same.  
  
Luke and Rachel are 6 years older than Lorelai.  
  
Luke doesn't live above the diner.  
  
Liz and Jess live in Stars Hollow.  
  
I did get the vague idea for this story from another story, but now I can't find the first story, so I can't give credit where it's due. If anyone can tell me the story, please do so.  
  
Sorry if any adoption details are WAY off, I don't know anything about adoptions.  
  
Disclaimer:  
  
I stole a line or two from the show. The Ramona Danes, age ___ came from Ramona Quimby Age 8. Beverly Cleary owns, her, and I don't own Beverly Cleary, so... I also don't own "Gilmore Girls," Harper Lee, Lois Lowry, George Orwell, "stupid baby books," the Arabian Nights, a fancy digital camera, room 1008 at Hartford Hospital (if there is a Hartford Hospital, or a room 1008, if there isn't than I own 'em both!), or those cool battery powered candles. Oh, and I just found out that someone actually owns the rights to "Happy Birthday," and that person isn't me.  
  
Prologue:  
  
On the outside they appeared to be the picture perfect American Dream family: A mother, a father, a daugter, a house on a street named for a fruit in quintessential smalltown, New England, hell, at one point they'd even had a long-haired golden retriever, but in truth, they did not even come close.  
  
Chapter One: 1008  
  
Luke Danes rushed his seven months pregnant wife to the hospital as she wailed in pain. He feared the worst. Just two days before the doctor had said that the baby was by no means ready. Luke may not have read all those stupid baby books Rachel had thrown at him, but he knew einough to know that a baby that came two months early, without fully developing first, did not stand a good chance.  
  
Luke tore into the hospital parking lot and, by some fear induced superpower, managed to get Rachel inside to a doctor. He was told to wait in the waiting room, and it was there that he paced for three hours. He did not notice them wheel in the beautiful teenage girl screaming curse words, or the older couple following her. He did not notice the woman who had given birth to one of her twins in the taxi to the hospital, with the second one planning on a quick appearance. He did not even notice the woman who actually gave birth in the waiting room. He did not notice anything until an expressionless nurse came to retrieve him.  
  
"Mr. Danes."  
  
He followed her in silence, not daring to ask the two questions shooting like lasers around his brain. "Is Rachel Alright," and "what about the baby?"  
  
They stopped outside an ordinary door with the number 1008 tacked to the front. It struck Luke that it was the same as the day's date, October eighth, 1984. He sighed before following the nurse inside. He kind of wished he had remained in the safety of the hallway, staring at the room number.  
  
Chapter Two: Tea, Books, and High School for Ramona  
  
Ramona (named for her late adoptive paternal grandmother) "Rory" Lorelai (named for her biological mother, though she did not know it) Danes, age six, giggled, and hopped off the barstool of her father's diner. She raced for the door and pulled it open with a tell tale jingle before Mean Mrs. Kim with her daughter, and Rory's best friend, Lane, could even reach for the handle. Rory gave Mrs. Kim a smile, grabbed Lane by the wrist, and told her to close her eyes, before leading her to the far corner of the room.  
  
"Open sesame!...or eyes!" she said with a giggle before stepping aside to show off the surprise, a frist grader sized tea party table complete with tea set, tea bags, and a pot of boiling water which Luke had instructed Rory not to touch.  
  
"A tea party?" Lane asked, "wow!"  
  
"I know, Daddy got it for me. He said you and me could have tea parties here whenever we want."  
  
"Really?"  
  
"Yeah!"  
  
"Yay!"  
  
__  
  
Ramona, age eleven, having given up what she considered to be a childish nickname, sat beneath the Stars Hollow Junior High oak tree with her cousin Jess. Ramona had The Giver open in front of her, and was quickly making her way through it, while Jess scribbled notes in the margins of HER copy of To Kill a Mockingbird. They sat in silence, simply enjoying each other's company.  
  
__  
  
Ramona, age 14, stood in front of Stars Hollow High School, desperately wishing she could go back to being little Rory Danes, racing around her father's diner. To her left stood Lane, who seemed more intrested in the Troubadour down the street than she did in Principal Martin's "welcome freshmen" speech, which was being held in the school's front lawn. Jess, to her right, was reading a copy of Animal Farm he stole from hre bookshelf while he pretended to listen.  
  
Ramona had been looking forward to this day since she found out high school existed. She had wanted so badly to walk through the busy halls of this school, to learn in its classrooms, sit on the bleachers of its gym, read in its library, she had wanted to be a high school student, but now that she was one she wasn't so sure of herself.  
  
It probably did not help that her day already sucked. Her parents had told her the night before that they were getting a divorce, so she had hardly slept the night before. In the morning, when she woke up from what little sleep she did get, she found that her mother had officially left, with hardly a note, and when she, Jess, and Lane had gotten to school and received their schedules she discovered that not only was her schedule wrong (they had put her in Spanish five when she was supposed to be in French three honors), she did not have a single class with Jess or Lane, who, by some evil twist of fate, had all their classes together. Not only that, but her locker would not open, the library, as it turned out, barely had any books, and the new P.E. Teacher was evil. Nothing was going right for her. All she wanted was to go to the diner, sneak a cup of coffee when her father was not looking, and take a book up to the old hardware office upstairs, her favorite place to read.  
  
Chapter three: Stillborn  
  
Luke followed the expressionless nurse into room 1008. Lying in the bed on the other side of the room was Rachel, still as a stone. At first Luke thought she was dead, but his fear was quenched when she lifted her head ever so slightly to see who had entered the room. her cheeks were red and blotchy, and Luke could tell that she had been crying. At the foot of the bed was a plastic hospital bassinet, but Luke did not have to look inside to know what was there.  
  
"He's dead, Luke," Rachel said in a tired monotone, "Baby Boy Danes, dead on arrival."  
  
Luke was not sure when exactly he started crying, but it was somewhere around then.  
  
The door, 1008, had not closed completely behind Luke, and not long after the nurse had left, while Luke and Rachel were staring at each other in silence, a loud woman in her early fifties walked past the room with her husband, ranting.  
  
"--and now she wants to put the baby up for adoptioin. Nine months saying she'll raise that little girl by herself and now she's changed her mind?! No, I won't stand for it! That girl was born Baby Girl Gilmore and she'll stay Baby Girl Gilmore. I will not have her be Baby Girl anything else--"  
  
"Emily." The man had a low, calm voice, but it was clear he was getting aggravated with his wife. "You know this is Lorelai's decision to make, not ours."  
  
"She's sixteen, Richard!"  
  
"I can't have kids, Luke!" Rachel blurted out, and Luke, who had been paying more attention to the woman in the hallway, immediately focused all of his attention on Rachel, as did the couple out in the hall, who stopped arguing.  
  
"That's what the doctor said. He told me it would be too great a risk to my own health, and then he tied my tubes."  
  
"Oh, Rachel."  
  
"I want a baby Luke, " she started crying again.  
  
"I know you do, Rach, I know you do."  
  
"Maybe we can adopt a baby."  
  
"We'll think about it," he sighed, "but maybe we should wait awhile."  
  
"Maybe."  
  
They left three days later with Baby Girl Gilmore- Baby Girl Danes.  
  
Chapter four: Dining Inn  
  
Ramona Danes, age 15, stepped out into the sunlight. She pulled her corduroy jacket tighter around her and took a breath of the cool October air. She slowly walked down the street to Doose's market, where her boyfriend, Dean Forester, was waiting for her. They had only been dating for about three weeks, but he got along well with Lane and Jess, and he could keep up with her fast speech and pop culture references, so she was happy.  
  
When she got to the corner the market was on she found him waiting for her. He leaned down to give her a kiss on her cheek, and then offerened her his arm, which she took willingly.  
  
"So, where are we going?" she asked as he led her through town.  
  
"You'll see, it's a birthday surprise."  
  
"A surprise!" she smiled up at him. "I love surprises!"  
  
"I know," he smiled back," that's why I'm surprising you."  
  
They walked for a little while, but not too long, and when they finally stopped Ramona looked up in awe at the beautiful old building in front of her. It was a large house, the Dragonfly Inn read a sign out front, that had fallen into disrepair. A wysteria vine grew on the porch trim. It was dead due to the recent cold weather, but still beautiful. There was a wild pumpkin patch to the side of th ebuilding, and a vegetable garden next to that. Out in front Dean had spread out a picnic blanket, and on it was a picnic basket, a wrapped gift, and two battery powered candles.  
  
"Happy birthday!" he whispered in her ear.  
  
The gift turned out to be a fancy digital camera, as photography was one of the few things Ramona had picked up from her mother, and afer their picnic dinner Ramona took a few pictures of the inn. She loved inns. She wondered where that love came from.  
  
End Book One  
  
Word count: 1868  
  
Elizabeth 


End file.
